Three of America’s biggest 800m stars seem to have vanished from competition. The Paris Diamond League is just three days away, and a famous track journalist has raised the question many fans are asking: Where are they?

Jonathan Gault, a staff writer for LetsRun.com, shared a post on X that read: “It’s June 24 and the reigning US 1500-meter champion has not raced at all — and no one seems to know where he is. What about the American 800 record holder? Or the world indoor 800 record holder? Where are Jonah Koech, Athing Mu-Nikolayev, and Josh Hoey?”

The 800m has produced some of America’s biggest track stars in recent years. Just a year ago, Josh Hoey finished second in the men’s 800m behind Spain’s Mohamed Attaoui in Paris. Many expected Hoey to even the score this weekend. Instead, his name is absent from the entry list along with champion Athing Mu and Jonah Koech.

All 3 are still missing from competition in 2026.

For 2x Olympic champion Mu, the silence has now stretched to nearly a year. The American star last competed at the 2025 USA Track & Field Championships, where she finished fourth in her 800m semifinal and failed to advance to the final. Her last Instagram post was about the same meet and came last year on July 31, shortly after the meet. It’s been radio silence ever since.

However, later that year, Mu ended her three-year coaching partnership with Bobby Kersee following a move from Los Angeles to Dallas with her husband, Yegor Nikolayev. Since then, she has not publicly announced a new coach or a return date. But that year, Kersee revealed that Mu was still dealing with lingering physical issues throughout 2025. “She still had nagging pains here and there,” he said in December. “There were still some off balances or whatever. She wasn’t 100% herself.”

It’s unclear whether those lingering issues are the reason why she is still missing! But what about other American runner Josh Hoey?

Hoey’s case is a little easier to figure out. The Current World record holder capped off 2025 on a high note, with a World record on the 600m in December, and started 2026 with a world record in the 800m in January at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix.

Hoey was to run the Wanamaker Mile competition at the Millrose Games, but had to pull out after worsening a hamstring problem. His absence also comes after a big career change. In 2025, he parted ways with Australian coach Justin Rinaldi who led him to a gold medal in the men’s 800m at the 2025 World Athletics Indoor Championships.

Though perhaps the most baffling is that of the Kenyan-born runner representing the United States, Jonah Koech!

Jonah Koech’s planned return never came

In 2025, Jonah Koech, the NACAC champion, had a dream season. At the USATF Outdoor Championships, he stunned the field to win his first national title in the 1500m with a meet record time of 3:30.17. He also did the biggest upset of the year in the Diamond League earlier that year with the Rabat 1500m, taking the win in a PB of 3:31.43. He also went back to his birth country, Kenya, finishing the Kip Keino Classic 800m in a hot 1:43.32.

Koech’s last race came at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, where he finished 13th in the 1500m final. But since then, he’s nowhere! However, earlier this year, his agent Peter Wolters said the hamstring issues that troubled Koech during 2025 had largely faded. However, Wolters revealed that Koech twisted his knee during a winter training run while trying to avoid traffic. Despite that setback, the plan was reportedly for him to open his 2026 season at the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi in April.

That never happened. Months later, Koech still has not raced. The uncertainty surrounding his situation only deepened when coach Haron Lagat, who works with him when he trains in Colorado, admitted he had not seen Koech at all in 2026. “As far as I know, he’s still back [in Kenya],” Lagat said.

Now, with the 2026 World Athletics Ultimate Championship less than three months away, the clock is ticking. Fans can only hope that Koech, Athing Mu, and the other sidelined stars can make their long-awaited return to the track!